palmettoinspect Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 Is there ever a set up that allows parallel water heaters to share an electrical circuit? I've never seen this before and came across it the other day. Every parallel or series set up I've seen each water heater has their own circuits. This set up has one circuit/wire jumped to the other water heater? Click to Enlarge 45.37 KB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plummen Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 They must have small elents in those heaters,Or the stats are turned way down. The whole set up looks like trash to me anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 The setting of the thermostats has nothing to do with it. Small elements, like you say, whose sum (just the larger of the two elements in each heater) does not exceed 5,760 watts. Even then, I'm not sure it's kosher, just functional. Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plummen Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 Well if the stats are turned down really low on 1 or the other it wont run as much anyway,less load on the electrical system. Not really efficient either. Ive seen people do weirder things,too many people watching you tube videos ,Learning to do really stupid things Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 Well if the stats are turned down really low on 1 or the other it wont run as much anyway,less load on the electrical system. Not really efficient either. Ive seen people do weirder things,too many people watching you tube videos ,Learning to do really stupid things It'll run less, yes, because the standby losses are less when the tank is cooler. But run it will and the power draw is the same when it does run. In other words, the thermostat does not modulate the wattage drawn by the elements. Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kogel Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 The wiring coming from the panel is undersized for that load, so it is dead wrong, no matter what. He may have upsized the breaker to prevent nuisance tripping, or set the elements so they are never on together, but that won't prevent the new owner from changing things back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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